David Banner (The Incredible Hulk)
Dr. David Bruce Banner is a physician and medical researcher who, after being exposed to enormous doses of gamma ray radiation, developed a condition in which whenever sufficiently angered or stressed, he would transform into a large, powerful green humanoid known as the Hulk, possessing both regenerative abilities and superhuman strength. Since nobody knows about his secret, David has been assumed dead and the Hulk became a fugitive accused of killing him and his colleague Dr. Elaina Marks. Using numerous (but similar) aliases he travels aimlessly from place to place while trying to take control over his condition and to possibly find out a cure for it. Biography When David and his wife Laura suffered a car crash, his wife became trapped inside the car as it burned. David attempted to save her, but couldn't get the strength he needed to open the door and was devastated by her death. After this, he became obsessed with studying similar incidents in which people did manage to summon extraordinary strength to save their loved ones. He was fascinated by the idea that everyone has hidden strengths which can only be accessed in times of great stress or despair - but was also frustrated at the fact that he hadn't managed that feat when he needed it most. Working with his colleague Dr. Elaina Marks, David eventually found out that, while his own genetic composition was similar to the other people investigated (they all shared a high percentage of adenine-thymine base pairs), all the other incidents had happened in a period of high sunspot activity which generated gamma rays, whereas David's own incident hadn't. Believing gamma rays to be the key, David tried to expose himself to a large dose, but even though the machine had been upgraded without his knowledge, exposing him to six times as much radiation as he had judged safe, he still failed to obtain any visible results at the moment. However, he later found that the gamma ray exposure had actually triggered the development of a strange condition, and from that point on, whenever David feels angered, he grows into a 7 ft tall green-hued humanoid monster, known to the press as "the Hulk". The first to find out about this was David's colleague Elaine, who tried to help David to develop a cure for this. Unfortunately, an explosion in the lab occurred, and while trying to save Elaine, David transformed into the Hulk and carried her out of the burning building on his arms, after which she died (but not before professing her love for David, something that he wouldn't consciously remember after reverting back to his human form). After the incident, David Banner is presumed dead and the Hulk becomes an evaded convict, believed to have killed both him and Elaine. He spends the next years of his life as a rogue drifter, wandering from town to town in search of a way to take control over the creature within him. In his travels he uses numerous aliases (but always keeps his first name, and chooses a surname starting with the letter B), and tries to evade the attention of investigative reporter Jack McGee who becomes obsessed with tracking down the Hulk. Hulk Form The Hulk possesses superhuman strength and resilience, and is also capable of healing all kinds of damage, to the point that David Banner once severed his spine, but healed permanently after transforming. The transformation into the Hulk is triggered by large concentrations of epinephrine, generated by anger or stress, and may happen even while David is asleep (for instance, when he dreams about the death of his wife). Although the Hulk is spawned by David's anger and rage and has been described as "uncontrollable", he still seems capable of controlling it to some degree, as demonstrated by the fact that he never kills and never allows innocents to get hurt. He is even known to have displayed love, kindness and compassion while in Hulk form. Despite all this, the Hulk cannot speak, only growl, and retains little intellectual capacity. David usually retains no memory of the times he spends as the Hulk. Gallery DavidBanner-BillBixby.jpg|Banner in his human form ThorLeeHulk.jpg|Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) and Thor (Eric Allan Kramer) with Stan Lee Notes *David Banner was based on the comic book character Bruce Banner, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In the 2003 film Hulk, Bruce Banner's father is named David Banner as a homage to the series, but is a completely different character. 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